Rescued from the Shelf: A Certain Slant of Light

I have, like most of you, piles of books. There are so many books that we don't have enough shelves for them -- even though our house is full of shelves. We have boxes of books and stacks of books and piles of books. We hoard our pennies to buy more shelves, but we always end up with more books. Somehow. Oddly. As if the universe were conspiring against us.

There are never enough hours in the day (yes, I know: a topic for an entire week of posts, debating a myriad of sides), so, of course, I've only read a portion of the books I own even though I'm always reading. Not too long ago, however, I rescued A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb from the shelf and finally devoured it.

I had originally picked out the book because of -- you guessed it -- the title. Any reference to Emily Dickinson immediately piques my interest. Secondly, the picture was intriguing: a girl with long hair mostly submerged in a bathtub with only her hands showing.

The premise -- a ghost who falls in love with the only boy who can see her -- is not that of a love story or that of teenage angst or even that of being invisible, although these elements all permeate the text. Instead, it's a novel that explores both acceptance and forgiveness, more specifically the ability to accept and forgive oneself for past failures, mistakes, missteps.

My review in a nutshell: As an English major, I enjoyed the references to literary figures woven into the text. As a writer, I appreciated the nuances of emotion, both teenage and adult, deftly unveiled through character development. As a reader, I reveled in the plot less traveled. As a teacher of teens for the past ten years, I had to admit: I've seen far too many students in Billy's predicament, with home lives in turmoil and drug and alcohol abuse constant companions. I've seen none in Jenny's, however, none who live imprisoned in some gestapo-like "Christian" household. That was the one unrealistic part, the part that felt like Whitcomb abused as some authorial soap-box of sorts. It left a metallic taste in my mouth, even though I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the book. Even though I recommend it to you now.

The Connection: A Certain Slant of Light perched on the chair next to my computer desk for a month or so before I happened to read on KatW's blog that she too was reading it. How funny that both of us picked up a book, published in 2005, and read it at the same time. I just love connections like that.

Chain Reaction: Next Book Give-Away

Haven't won a book yet? Hoping your luck will change? Well, here's your chance. Head over to Dogtrax's blog and enter your sweet little self into his Book Give-Away. Recipient of the Artemis Fowl book I gave away, Dogtrax has risen to the challenge of hosting his own give-away AND upped the ante to five books. Woot!

I am, however, totally blaming him for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' song tumbling through my head right now. over and over. and again.

Ten Good Books

2008 was a dry year, a bit oaky, but plenty of legs. I actually don't know enough about wine to add anything more to that assessment, so I'll stop. What I'm trying to say is that I didn't really read many books at all, and the ones I did either didn't stand out or were dry and boring. That doesn't stop me, however, from bringing you "Ten Good Books." After looking back at my bad books caterwauling, I decided that I'd better bring you something to enjoy. So without further ado, here is my list (culled from the 2006-2007 reading lists) of decent, enjoyable books.

Ten Good Books in No Particular Order

1. The Meadow James Galvin: beautiful, lyrical, made me cry
2. Singer of Souls Adam Stemple: fantasy; gritty first novel
3. A Dirty Job Christopher Moore: delightful, sarcastic, witty, irreverent (his best, IMHO)
4. The Alchemist Paulo Coelho: a perennial must-read for those who journey
5. The Lightning Thief Rick Riorda: YA fun first book to series
6. Mortal Engines Philip Reeve: YA fantasy; incredible world-building
7. The Chalion Series: Lois McMasters Bujold: fantasy; world-building; masterful storyteller; I'm in awe
8. The Widow's War Sally Gunning: feisty, sad, made me cry
9. Mimus Lilli Thal: fantastical, odd, want to read the next one
10. Odd Thomas Series Dean Koontz: don't usually read Koontz, but this was fun

Any books I should add to my must-read list for 2009? Let me know, please. I might as well get started. We're five days into the new year already!

The Struggling Writer Files: What You Can Do

Conflict simmers along quite nicely when large bodies of intent, replete with significant gravitational pulls themselves, can squint down their individual pathways and envision the coming collision.

Take this one, for example: struggling writer (actually, fill in this blank with any writer, struggling or not) glances up from precious work-in-progress to note several items of import...

• The economy is faltering.
• Book sells are down.
• The US trade book market faces a rough immediate future.

Panic flares in multi-hued edges; what if there are no buyers for my book? What if books are banned because they use precious resources? What if amazon.com pushes through legislation requiring all texts to be read via kindle?

Oh, wait. Writers don't think about things like that. What was I thinking? However, on the off chance that things like this do prickle along your subconscious while you're doing a find for all -ly words in your manuscript, I have a truly scintillating piece of advice.

Go forth and buy books. It's your civic duty. Actually, it's you single-handedly saving the publishing industry. After all, shouldn't we writers support the very companies we want to someday work for?

Publish My Book: Steps You Can Take

Note: This posting is a continued conversation on the topic of Agents & Publishing.

So, what now? It's really a matter of choosing a course and following through. If you're determined to get published, you must commit to the following steps:

1. Write the best novel you can. I can't tell you how many people I talk to who have a great idea or have just written the first fifty pages. Stop talking and write. There's too much competition out there to simper over what you're going to do. Just do it.

2. Do the research. Who repesents your market? Who's accepting unsolicited manuscripts? There are so many good resources out there already (on-line: AgentQuery, Writer Beware, ForWriters, Writers Write & book form: Guide to Literary Agents, Literary Marketplace, Writer's Market to name a few), that I'm not going to repeat it all here.

3. Do the research part II. Think you're done? Not by half. Once you find a sizable agent list, research them. Visit their websites and find out exactly what they want. If they're looking to publish urban fantasy with a steampunk edge and you're writing high fantasy, look elsewhere. Tailor everything you do in your query to each specific agent. Yes, that means that you might be doing a great deal of editing and work. That's okay. That's your job.

4. Do the work. Write a darn good query letter. Again, this means doing your homework, discovering what a query letter is supposed to accomplish, and perfecting your work of art.

• Reminder: Different agents require different things. Look up their requirements on their website. They may ask for a query letter, a synopsis, or a chapter outline, an ounce of blood or DNA proof that you're not a child of the antichrist. Give it to them.
• Note: If agents have no unsolicted manuscripts written on their site, that simply means that you need to write an effective query letter. Don't strike them off your list.
  

5. Send off your queries in batches of ten (see previous post on this strategy).

6. Don't stop -- Keep writing. Just because you've written the next best thing since LiveScribe doesn't mean you rest on your laurels. Nope. Instead, you keep on a' truckin'. You write. After all, it's what you do.

Agents 201: Do I Need an Agent?

Part II of III on understanding the world of agents. The content for today's post has been gleaned from the ever-so-gracious Jody Conrad, author of When Goliath Doesn't Fall.

Are agents necessary? Having a reputable agent represent you is like having Coca-Cola represent your unknown, brown, chemical syrup. Without an agent's well-respected name representing you, the the chances of a publishing house seeing your brown liquid as anything but brown liquid are slippery at best.

Authors can get published without agents, it's just sometimes more difficult, especially for a first-time-author, to get the attention of a busy publishing house. It's easier for a publishing house to rely on the trusted name of an agent they already know sends them good referrals.

Agents do three things:
1. Help you get your foot in the door of the publishing world.
2. Negotiate the finer points of a book contract (i.e. % of advance, basket-accounting, etc).
3. Provide market tips and strategies, keep an eye out for further placing your work, and give general encouragement.

Why is it so hard to find an agent? All that said, agents are sometimes just as hard to 'win-over' as publishing houses. They have to really believe in your work to take you on because taking you on means they are endorsing your kind of writing which, in turn, reflects on them. Too, besides a percentage of your advance, they only get paid if your book does well; a risk for them. So, they weigh whether your writing is worth putting their time and effort into tweaking, representing, and pitching to publishing houses. In essence, their agency's name is on the line.

When you keep that in mind -- that an agent takes a risk by associating with you, an unknown -- it starts to put things in perspective. And a bit of perspective is like a twist of lemon: it keeps things real while giving you mouth-watering insight into the life of others.